Hi all! I’ve read so many people’s posts here and couldn’t quite find something exactly like my situation, so I wanted to post and hear if anyone had been through something similar. Things are a bit complicated, but in sum, I’m up to the last minute needing to either renew my visa or change to a job hunting visa with the support of a lawyer. My main concern is if I’m not able to get an answer about my visa in the two month extension, and want to know if that has happened to anyone. Any insights would be super appreciated! I’ll explain in detail below:
I’ve worked in Tokyo on a Engineer/Humanities visa since 2017 as a regular employee. Last year, I left my regular contract and was offered a consultancy, and have now been gyoumu itaku for the past 15 months or so. I was hoping this contract, which is a full salary comparable to my time as a regular employee would be renewed and I could use this as the basis for my visa. (My contract ended end of September, and my Visa ends on November 18th). I began this conversation early August while beginning job hunting but didnt get informed til the first week of October my hours would be cut in half and I would only receive a two month extension… meaning there’s no way my visa would be supported.
Unfortunately some of the places I applied to also did not get back to me until nearly 3 months after, so where I am now is doing final interviews in the next week, right up until my actual visa expiration.
I’ve been getting support from an immigration lawyer who will help me either renew my visa if I’m able to get an offer, or support my application to change to a job hunting visa (they’ve told me there’s a chance, but it’s not guaranteed). At this point, though, it’s most likely that I need to to put in the application to change my visa status. They’ve also told me that luckily, just by virtue of putting in the application, it sets off the automatic extension, and that before an answer is given for the job hunting visa, we have the option of resubmitting and changing to a simple extension with my new employer.
I’m confident that in the next 2 weeks I’ll have a job offer, but my main concern is that I’m seeing so many people say that their extension is taking more than 2 months, which makes me quite worried for running out of that automatic extension time.
Has anyone run into something similar before? If I get an automatic extension until Jan 18 2024, and then do not actually receive my result by then, what happens? Has anyone ever gone over this period?
Any insight would be super appreciated! This whole process has been so stressful, and there have been many days I’ve been in tears thinking I would not be able to continue staying here to work….Thanks everyone for sharing your stories, and I hope my post can also help others in a similar bind.
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2 comments
>change to a job hunting visa (they’ve told me there’s a chance, but it’s not guaranteed)
That’s because the job hunting visa is *typically* only for students who graduated in Japan with a recommendation letter (and typically not language school students either)
https://visa-station.jp/shurou/syuusyosyokukatsudo-visa-tokuteikatsudou/
As for the automatic two month extension, that is two months, or when a decision is made… which ever comes first.
So just having that two month extension does not automatically mean you get two months extra after the original expiration, should the decline decision get made before that two month extension expires.
Its why it’s best to start the renew process 3 months before it expires because then you usually have your new visa in hand before the current one has expired, thus not living on that two month buffer… which always has a chance of being less than 2 months
I’ve never actually heard of someone on a working visa switch to a job hunting visa when they’ve run out of time to renew. It’s usually reserved for graduates to have a chance to use their new qualifications and work in Japan. That’s why the period is a few months. If your lawyer has said you may have a chance then I guess you do, but I’ve never heard of it. The natural consequence of running out of time on a visa is you need to leave.